Customer Reviews

Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them

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If you are a real teacher (or principal or dean) in a real school, this humane and engaging book will surprise you with its combination of practicality and idealism. It will inspire you to change things and to believe in the possibility of change.

After teaching for eight years, I have spent the last three as "the discipline guy", Dean of Students, in a small, rural middle school. As both teacher and now as dean I have developed a deep suspicion of a certain sort of books. You know the ones: written by theoreticians or one-on-one therapists who have never had to juggle a roomful of 25 actual young human beings with not enough time, not enough resources and far too much of paperwork, testing, and ringing bells; and more and more deeply-troubled youngsters. These are the books that anxious or angry and frustrated parents bring to meetings that tell them how you should be meeting the needs of their unsuccessful or disruptive child. These books make things far worse for everyone involved.

"Lost at School" is different; and that's clear from the beginning. After a brief introduction which pulls no punches in saying "school discipline is broken" the book launches into a story! Every teacher I know likes a good story - and this one feels so much like real (school)-life from the beginning that it sets the hook for the rest of the book. The different thing about this story is not the characterization of the troubled and challenging kids, but of its inclusion of the realistic range of adult personalities that combine to make education what it is - and sometimes isn't. The book sets out to follow the path of a handful of youngsters and another handful of fictional teachers and administrators who are struggling with the limitations of their own range of personalities and world-views as well as the real constraints of what schools can and cannot do. It is quite eye-opening and, in my opinion, dead-on accurate.

Now don't let me give the impression that this book is just another entertaining "Up the Down Staircase" or "Room 222" or even merely another inspirational "Stand and Deliver". "Lost at School" is ultimately focused on a suite of methods for understanding children who exhibit challenging behaviors in school and for working with them to help them change. The "storyline" serves as an opportunity to view those methods in action as used by some fictionalized but well-drawn characters.

The core assumptions of Greene's approach are that behaviorally challenging youngsters (a) "know how we want them to behave" and (b) "want to behave the right way". They don't need us to keep depriving them of privileges or offering them rewards to learn these two bits.

The basic premise of the book is that these youngsters lack specific thinking skills which make it difficult or impossible for them to behave in circumstances that come up too-frequently in their school lives. Much as education has come-around in the past 20 years to acknowledge that cognitive deficits, learning disabilities, must be acknowledged as part of a youngster's learning of reading or mathematics, we need to move to a similar approach with behavioral difficulties.

The goal, then, for educators, parents and the students, is to identify these missing or lagging cognitive skills and help students develop them - as central parts of their education. Greene provides an inventory which will remind educators of the sorts of rubrics we use frequently, for instance, in assessing students for attention or hyperactivity disorders. Some of these skills may well have come up in your conversations about a difficult student, e.g. "difficulty handling transitions". Some of them have probably been parts of conversations about students without the notion that they ought to be taught, e.g. "difficulty considering likely outcomes or consequences of actions". And some of them might just not have occurred to you as loci of behavioral challenges, e.g. "difficulty taking into account situational factors that would suggest the need to adjust a plan of action". Rarely, though, have you or I managed to systematically think about what to do with these anecdotal observations.

Having worked through the assessment of lagging skills, the next task is to "teach" these skills. In this regard Greene shifts gears and does not provide a "curriculum". Instead he provides an approach - a way of communicating with behaviorally challenging youngsters that he terms "Collaborative Problem Solving" or CPS. Some might find this unsatisfying. I did, at first; hoping for a "methods" approach to teaching this as any other group of skills. But I found Greene's system ultimately satisfying and revealing instead. He gives us CPS and weaves his ongoing story of sixth-grader Joey into its explication

The CPS approach is interesting because it sounds so simple. Greene calls it simply "Plan B"; distinguishing from "Plan A" - wherein the teacher or institution imposes its will on the student, and from "Plan C" in which we "drop an expectation completely, at least temporarily". I have to compliment Green on boldly sticking to such a simple naming scheme instead of coming up with typical ed-psych jargon to describe his schema or its alternatives. But the real power of such a simply-named approach is that describing it reveals how much we are all rooted in bouncing between poorly-implemented versions of plans A and C as part of school discipline. The "Plan B" or CPS approach assumes and requires listening to and the meaningful participation of the student -- and that is revealed to be a deeply-buried skill of even the well-intentioned educators in the storyline. But it can be learned and is the key to making things work.

Greene is very open to all the ways things can go awry in dealing with real kids in real school environments. He peppers the book with "Q&A" sections, and sample dialogues. But central to his acknowledgement of the "real world" is his fictional one! He weaves in, throughout, the ongoing tale of Joey and Mrs. Woods; of the Assistant Principal who got knocked in the jaw by Joey back in chapter one; of Joey's anguished mom and even of Mr. Armstrong, the "these kids just have to learn how to behave" guy, whom seems so familiar to any educator. This side-story becomes in many ways a central one as all of these people move through a year of struggle and transformation.

I won't tell you how it ends but will reassure you that it does end, as most school years to, not with a bang of disaster or triumph but with a deep breath and a look ahead as all the good but flawed folks involved anticipate the next year's labors. In this Greene manages to honor the motives and efforts of everyone who chooses to work in the often thankless business of education while he deftly reminds us of how much better we could and should be doing with these youngsters.

Please Read this Book! I couldn't put it down. It encouraged me and helped me step back so that I could get a fresh outlook with my children's motivations and struggles. If you are struggling with behavioral issues in your classroom or at home and have ADHD students or students with other behavioral issues, I believe this book will encourage you. This book is geared toward educators, but I believe it would also be very valuable and helpful for parents who have children with behavioral challenges to understand why their children are struggling in school and what can be done to help them.

The premise of this book is that traditional methods of rewards and consequences are not effective with students with behavioral problems. So, we are faced with the question, "What do we do now?" The author's answer is that we need to discard the labels of things like Bipolar and ADHD and look more deeply at the skills students are lacking--emotional and intellectually. We, as parents and teachers, need to equip students so that they can cope. There is an inventory/questionaire at the back of the book called the ALSUP which is a great tool to help you pinpoint your child/student's struggles.

The book focuses on the philosophy behind this list of skills and then how to implement strategies to address the student's/child's needs. The author does a great job of giving examples that illustrate his points.

I highly recommend this book! Many books written for educators are very dry and hard to get through. On the other hand, this book is interesting and thought provoking throughout!

As a comrade in the effort to make the care of challenging kids humane and healing, I can not say enough about Dr. Greene's work. The collaborative problem solving model is the first truly effective model of care and conceptualization for these kids I have seen in nearly 25 years of work, and is the only model that uses the best of the people who really give the care-the teachers, the parents, the staff-to make a difference.

Lost at school is not only for educators but for anyone who cares for troubled kids. For caregivers using the Collaborative Problem Solving model, Lost at School develops and deepens understanding of why kids have problems and how they can be helped. Since school is the primary work of childhood, anyone who works with children needs the wisdom of this book.

I am a clinical psychologist specializing in pediatric neuropsychology. I was introduced to Dr. Greene's Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) approach during my post-doctoral training at a multidisciplinary center for children/adolescents with dyslexia, AD/HD and other learning and behavior disorders. CPS is powerful and effective but takes lots of patience on the part of adults. It is a long-overdue as an approach that is needed in our schools.

I have worked with so many teachers who cite "motivation" as the reason for a child's behavior problems. I have seen functional behavior analysis forms with checkboxes for "low motivation." What, in fact, is "motivation"? It is one of the those temrs that SOUNDS like it explains something, but it doesn't really explain anything at all. No child WANTS to fail, WANTS to be embarrassed in front of his/her peers, WANTS to go to the principal's office, or WANTS to suspended. As Dr. Greene makes plain: "Children do well if they can." If they can't, it is up to the adults to figure out the skill deficit and teach them the skills they needed.

The education community now realizes that the "wait-to-fail" model does not serve children, but many are confused about how to implement "response to intervention" approaches, especially for behavior problems. The diagnosis doesn't matter; identifying the skill deficits that cause behavior problems does. The skill deficits are similar across diagnostic labels -- oppositional defiant disorder, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or a learning disability.

This approach is not a cure-all. It is somewhat language-intensive and may or may not be as effectice for children with language deficits. I don't believe that children fail school; I believe our schools are failing our children. This approach can go a long way toward helping schools help the most vulnerable children in our communities.

I have just finished reading this book and am so grateful to Ross Greene for having written it. I am a long time follower of his work, having read his two previous books, "The Explosive Child" and "Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach", and having attended several of his presentations. I am the mother of a teenager who was an explosive child, and I am also a pediatric occupational therapist and special education instructor. This new book is valuable to me for all of those roles.

The way this book is set up makes it very user friendly. It combines both the background and strategies of the CPS model with ongoing scenarios commonly found in schools. In addition there are excellent questions and answers found at the end of each chapter. As I was reading them, I could think of the exact teachers and parents in my school who would be asking those questions, and having a ready answer will be quite valuable. I have used the CPS model at home and in my work in pediatrics and have had great success. The changes I have seen in children's willingness to take part in helping themselves and in trusting adults has been exceptional. Perhaps one of the most profound things this book and the CPS model do is to promote a major paradigm shift in the way adults view children with behavioral issues. Once you read this information, it is hard to ever go back to viewing a child's behavior the same way again. I am planning to try to implement this approach within our school with as many of the staff as I can get on board.

For those who have read Ross's previous books, there will be some repetition about the actual set up of the plan. However, I found the specific school application added a new dimension to my understanding of CPS. Additionally, review of these strategies is always a good idea in order to carry them out with the greatest success. Thanks Ross! Through this book you have once again touched the lives of many children,professionals and parents in a very positive way!

The main goal of this book is to make the reader understand that a demanding child has a problem which can be solved with the support of his family and most importantly, our very own school system. Dr. Greene talks about using his Plan B "which is one the three ways in which adults handle problems with kids , and that it's quite different from the usual ways." The author clearly demonstrates his expertise in this area by his very organized and problem solving approach.

The book has several short examples of such kids with problems and how we might deal with them. Additionally, this book tells us about one particular boy Joey who has behavior problems and how with the support of his school, his problems are first identified and then controlled with the author's Plan B. There are sample dialogues in this book between the child and his parent, child and his teacher etc. which provide a clear understanding as to where the problem exactly lies and the basic approach one must take when dealing with such children. The main point being that the school's responsibility doesn't merely end by informing the parents, but to go above and beyond to reach into the minds of such children and give them a better future.

As I said, I''m very impressed, and this book is a must read for not only parents, but also teachers and caregivers who are key in solving this kind of behavior and giving these kids the chance they deserve!

This book is a must read for teachers, principals, parents and anyone who deals with learning challenged children and teenagers. Punitive consequences do not work for them. Dr. Ross Greene explains why and offers workable, practical methods for managing their behavior positively and effectively.

I have really enjoyed reading this book and found it to be straightforward and easy to follow. I have been an educator for many years, first as a classroom teacher and now in an alternative setting (a juvenile detention facility). For many years now we have been told to differentiate our teaching, to understand that children learn in different ways and we, as educators, should be sure to address all children's learning styles. It makes sense that we should also understand that behaviors need to be addressed differently. As I read through this book I could "see" children I had taught in the past, children who seemed to be unable to control their behavior. I believe this would be a valuable tool for a classroom teacher and for parents of a child who is having difficulty in school.

I don't think this book will solve every problem for every child, but I do believe that the methods set forth in this book could be a godsend for many teachers, parents, and especially for many children who are getting lost in the shuffle.

I highly recommend this book for parents and teachers dealing with children who are struggling with behavior issues.

I really like the premise this book works on. I've worked in schools and seen first hand that detentions, suspensions, etc. often do not work. The same students usually do it repeatedly and the behavior does not change. I really like the empathy strategy this book uses and agree that there is a reason behind the student's actions.

This book was easy to read. I was expecting it to be too clinical or dry, but it wasn't and had an easy flow. It used a few big words so I had to keep a dictionary close by to look them up, but for the main part it was pretty easy to understand. I liked how he gave you real type situations so you could see just how to talk to a student...not just give you instructions and leave it at that, but actual possible scenarios and show you how it might actually work.

This book is a must read for anyone who works with students. I have recommended it to everyone I know!